28The boy trudged after his friends, just a few feet behind them. He could tell they were anxiously looking back at him even though his eyes were staring determinedly at the ground. Everything Tax had said was true. He just never wanted to consider it as a possibility. Right now, the only thing swirling in his mind was 'what if?'
What if he had never told her how he felt? What if he never told her how much he wanted to see her? What if he could go back? What if he could still be there for her? What would happen if he could? Would they just be friends forever, nothing more and nothing less? Would they eventually fall out of contact and never think of each other for the rest of their lives? Would they have a chance? Would he get a chance?
"Hey, Zee?"
The zoned out teen raised his head to find Danny watching him with tentative eyes. "What's up, Danny boy?"
"Um... are you okay?"
The boy sighed. "As okay as I'll ever be. Where are we headed anyway?"
"Toby said there's a pub somewhere down the road. He also mentioned something about baby back ribs and bourbon. Sounds good, doesn't it?" Danny smiled a bit, as if trying to get the boy's mind off of what happened in the theatre. The boy wanted to smile back for his friend's sake, but couldn't find the energy to do so.
He opened his mouth to say something that would ease Danny's concerns, but stopped when he found the younger boy's attention on something behind him. "Um... Zee? You might want to move."
"Huh? What are you talki—OOF!"
His entire body fell flat against the asphalt under him, causing his uncovered skin to cry out in pain. In his confusion, he had twisted around with his back to the ground. For a moment, his five senses were scrambled. His vision was dizzy, he could just barely make out Danny asking him if he was okay, and his whole body felt numb. His nose, however, was functioning properly.
Or maybe not. Because the only thing he could smell was the scent of strawberries.
When he finally gathered his bearings, he found himself staring into the eyes of the person who ran into him. Her legs were tangled with his from their jumbled crash, her hands were pressed up against his chest, his right hand had rested itself on the small of her back, and both of them had lost their ability to speak. That is until the girl on top of him turned red with embarrassment and scattered away from him in all but two seconds, mumbling apologies as she did.
The boy sat up, wincing as he did, and found the girl just a few feet away from him, still on the ground.
He drank in the sight of her, ignoring his friends' questions and worries. He could tell Tax recognized the girl from the way he told the rest of the guys to shut their pieholes and leave him alone. He could faintly hear Tax tell him that they would be over at the pub and not to get lost on the way after he was done.
And so, they were left alone. A loud silence filled the air around them. A loud yet sweet silence, but both the boy and the girl knew it couldn't last forever. He opened his mouth to speak, but the girl shook her head before he could.
"No. Let me."
Her voice was soft, feminine, and comforting.
Her eyes looked down to her hands and she bit her bottom lip, probably out of habit. "I-I'm sorry I ignored you. In the movie theatre. I'm also sorry for eavesdropping. I r-really shouldn't have done that."
It was then that he noticed her attire. Her t-shirt displayed an advertisement for the new sci-fi movie premiering in theatres a week from now and her jeans were splattered with nacho cheese and stains of popcorn butter.
"You were—"
"I was the one behind the counter."
The boy didn't know how to respond, so he said the first thing that popped into his head. "You owe Danny a slushy."
The girl smiled weakly. "Yes, I suppose I do." She gulped nervously. "I-I want to explain myself. Um... you probably know that I heard everything at the theatre, right?"
The boy nodded.
She bit her lip once more. "I'm sorry. I thought you were just a regular bunch of college students so I just stayed and kept cleaning. It wasn't until I heard your names that I—"
"Hid from me. Specifically me."
The girl closed her eyes ashamedly. "Yes. I hid from you. I couldn't bear facing you. The chances of seeing you here were a million to one. I never expected to find you here of all places."
The boy watched her closely. "Neither did I. Not until you decided to ram into me and knock me over."
The girl chucked uneasily. "Sorry about that as well. I sort of forgot to stop running. That and I didn't want to miss you once you left. It... um... it took me a while to get myself out of the building in the first place."
The realization of this fact suddenly registered within the boy's addled brain. "I hadn't seen you. I could've lived the rest my life without knowing you were that close to me. You chose to come after me."
"Y-yes. I did."
"Why?"
The girl finally lifted her eyes to meet his in a sudden act of bravery, though they were still clouded with apprehension. "I didn't want to let you go."
This was not the answer the boy expected at all. "What are you talking about? You're the one who—"
"Yes, I was the one who left. I cut off every bit of contact with you," affirmed the girl. "But I still ran after you. Y-you were broken. I couldn't endure hearing your voice sound so miserable. It was strange hearing your voice for the first time, but it wasn't the way I imagined it. It didn't match the person I knew from online. I cried. I cried a lot. Just like how I cry when Mufasa dies, but a bit more."
The boy noticed that the girl's eyes were slightly puffy and pink, but he had thought she was tired from her long shift. Speaking of...
"Why are you working anyway? You don't even live here. Didn't you say your dad had work?"
The girl nodded. "He does, but one of his co-workers was working here at the theatre in her spare time. The manager is her brother and he had asked if she could help out since he didn't have enough employees working this week. I told her I would take over for her here."
For the first time in a while, the boy genuinely smiled. "That's just like you. You're always helping out others."
The girl's cheeks flushed light pink. "I just wanted to lessen her workload. She was exhausted trying to juggle two jobs and she was running on at most five hours of sleep."
"Doesn't matter. You're still always of service to whoever needs it. As long as it's within your capability, of course."
Her cheeks blushed once more. "Stop. Don't compliment me. I've told you before not to do so."
"Fine. I won't." The boy subtly inched closer to her. "Why'd you come after me? Why didn't you want to let me go? It couldn't have been just because of my weird voice."
She frowned. "Your voice is not weird. I like it. It sounds...uh..."
He raised an eyebrow, suddenly curious. "Go on."
She looked away. "Rich. It sounds rich. And hus—deep. A nice sort of deep."
The boy smirked. "Rich and deep, huh? And you call me a flirt."
The girl sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. And I didn't want to let you go because... um..." A pained expression crossed her face.
The smirk had disappeared and was replaced with a look of solemnity. "Tell me. Please."
"Because I love teddy bears."
The boy blinked. "What?"
"I just told you. It's because I love teddy bears. Especially one special bear. But...um... I lost him. I misplaced him."
"Did he have a red ribbon around his neck?"
The girl clenched her teeth. "Yes. And he had really warm chocolate eyes. He was always there for me before I fell asleep every night."
"Where did you last see him?"
"I-I can't remember. I think I upset him. I... um... he had a special place in my heart. He was more important to me than my 'for dummies' book about beer."
"That important, huh?" The boy continued to slowly get closer to her. "You know, I had something like that as well. A doll."
The girl looked at him with confusion. "A doll?"
The boy grinned. "A princess to be exact. Hazel eyes, dark hair. She had a strange habit of biting her lip."
Her ears tinged red. "I-I'm sure she didn't mean to. Maybe it was a weird habit. Maybe it was a trait she adopted from her father. Or her mother. Probably her father."
"Hmm. Maybe. Guess I'll never know. The princess escaped from me."
The girl didn't know what to say.
"But you know something? I have a plan to get her back."
The girl widened her eyes. "H-how are you going to do that?"
The boy laughed. "I'm going to kidnap her, of course!"
Her mouth dropped open. "HUH?"
His eyes danced with mirth. "I don't consider myself a prince. I'm too rebellious to be one. Or at least, that's what the princess always said. Instead, I'm the dragon who goes after the princess and keeps her locked in his cave." The boy crossed his legs Indian-style. "Over time, the princess is going to fall in love with the dragon. She won't want to leave him ever again."
The girl started trembling. "B-but what if the princess has other duties to attend to. She's still a princess. She has to help her kingdom and her citizens."
"Oh, don't worry. The dragon will let her out of his grasp every once in a while, but whenever a male above the age of fifteen tries to talk to her, the dragon will incinerate him right then and there. After all, the dragon is very possessive."
The girl smiled timidly. "I think that the princess might get a little annoyed with the dragon's constant state of jealousy."
"Well, she'll just have to put up with it. As a dragon, I won't ever let her get away from me. Not again."
The girl was struck speechless once again.
"So what about you?"
"Huh?"
The boy looked at her with a somber expression. "What are you going to do about that teddy bear of yours?"
The girl looked at him determinedly. "I'm going to find him. And tell him I missed him. And that I love him with all my heart. I never wanted to hurt him. I just didn't know how to handle my feelings. I couldn't believe someone as fluffy as him could want me the same way I wanted him. And I still want him. I want to make some more happy memories with him. I want to be by his side. Oh, and I think I might as well tell him that I actually don't want him. I need him. A lot."
"Is that all?"
"I also want to sleep with him."
The boy processed her wish in his mind before grinning widely. "I think the teddy bear would be most delighted to make that request of yours a reality."
The girl's face was cherry red at this point. "NO! I just want to cuddle with him when I go to sleep, like how people do with regular teddy bears. There will be no sexual acts involving me and my bear until I'm twenty-one."
The boy pouted. "That teddy bear is going to be extremely disappointed."
She looked away, still embarrassed. "Well... he's just going to have to deal with it. He's already too perverted as it is."
"You are very mean to your teddy bear."
"And you are probably very rude to your princess."
The boy sighed. "Touché." He stood up, dusting his jeans before he reached his hand toward the girl. "You getting up?"
Wordlessly, the girl accepted his hand and stood up as well. She straightened out her t-shirt before facing him. He had his head tilted, as if deep in thought. The girl furrowed her brows. "What?"
The boy smiled. "I just realized something. We never introduced ourselves." He stuck his hand out. "Hi. I'm Alexander Graves. Nice to meet you."
The girl beamed at him and shook his hand. "Hello, Alexander. My name is Annaliese Hopkins. And the pleasure is all mine. I hope we'll see each other soon in the future."
The boy—now Alexander—winked at her. "Oh, don't worry. I think we'll see each other sooner than you think." He placed a quick peck on her cheek.
The girl's—I mean, Annaliese's—hazel eyes widened in shock before twinkling with delight. "I'll look forward to it. I will most definitely look forward to it."
The Very Last Interlude
And so, ladies and gentlemen, Annaliese (AnnalieseCaprese) and Alexander (XanderHolloway) were given the happy ending they yearned for. It might have taken them a little while, but they were overjoyed with how their journey concluded. Now, they were ready to embark on a whole new adventure, one where they would be at each other's sides and battle the world together.
There were too many coincidences in their love story. Way too many. Almost as if it was something out of a fiction novel. Their friends thought they were crazy as well. How could this relationship ever last, they asked. Who's to say that this was truly a love story that could be real, that could actually become a reality? Well, luckily for Alexander and Annaliese, neither of them were very fond of reality. After all, that's how they clicked in the first place.
Dear Annaliese: I hope you get everything you wanted. I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to hearing about the new adventures you have with your teddy bear at your side. Oh, and if it makes any difference, I think Annaliese Graves has a nice ring to it. Just saying.
Dear Alexander: Stop being perverted.
I blinked at the document in front of me. Then I stared at it for a minute or ten. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with an ecstatic joy that can only come with the jubilated sense of achievement.
I turned to my side and started shaking the man snoring at my side. "Tax! Tax, wake up! I finished! I finished it!"
Tax yawned and looked at me through bleary eyes. "What the hell are you going on about, woman?"
I ignored his very-extremely rude speech and instead grinned happily. "I finished! I finished writing their story! It's finally done. Just in time for the wedding!"
Tax sat up, stretching his wonderful-looking muscular arms as he did, before giving me a sleepy, yet sweet, smile. "Congrats, darling. You were really freaking out about completing it for Annaliese and Zee and now you've finally done it."
I clapped my hands with delight. "I know! I swear, this is going to be the best wedding gift Annaliese gets. Imagine receiving a beautiful composition of one's love story on the day of their marital bliss? Ahh, it's so romantic!"
My husband raised a brow. "I thought we were giving them that rainbow-colored KitchenAid blender as their wedding gift."
"Yes, that too, but Annaliese is my best friend. I wanted to get her something special, something that would touch her heart. Our blender gift is really quite fabulous, but I think Annaliese might be a little disappointed in me if that's all I got her."
Tax chuckled. "True. I, on the other hand, decided to forgo giving Zee another gift. He doesn't deserve it."
"Aww, come on," I laughed, grabbing his arm and placing it around my shoulders. "You already brag about getting married before him. Shouldn't you at least get him something to show your bromantic love and appreciation for him?"
"No."
"You're a meanie."
"Yes, but I'm your meanie."
I kissed his cheek. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."
Tax grinned. "So what time are we supposed to get ready for the wedding? It'll take us some time to get ready and then we'll have to spend an hour helping the bride and groom get over their pre-marriage jitters."
I glanced at the time on my computer before turning white as a sheet. "Tax, it's ten-thirty. The wedding's at noon."
Every bit of Tax's body stilled. "What?"
"..."
"..."
"SHIT!"
We jumped out of bed before I sent a murderous glare toward the idiot. "What kind of best man are you to forget about your best friend's wedding?!"
Tax stared at me incredulously before scowling. "Me?! What about you, Miss Maid-Of-Honor?!"
"GAHHH! Forget it. I'm taking a shower while you go iron our clothes. Then you'll get ready and I'll get everything we need for the wedding and throw it in the car. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
We had already went our separate ways before I remembered something.
"TAX!"
"WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW, WOMAN?!"
"I LOVE YOU!" I yelled cheerfully.
There was a beat of silence before Tax burst out laughing. "LOVE YOU TOO!"
THE END XD